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Nihlas Kain
Name: Nihlas Kain *'Class: Trooper, the Galactic Republic' *'Race: Human' *'Age: 31' *'Family: His father, one known younger brother and sister' "One of the Republic's finest. An unsong hero. A catalyst of hope." - General Malzuü, Fifth Sun "By pure will and determination, he lead more than just his own men by example." - Sancti Oaroso, Senator "He just wouldn't give up. He probably didn't know how to." ''- Anonymous, Paragon ''"Off the record? He was never on it. Still, the people always recognize the handy-work of the Paladins." - Gyn Wylda, DantoSec Character story THE NIGHT ON PLANET CSILLA In the early days, Nihlas Kain served with the regulars of the 22nd Galactic Republic Army Light Infantry division. There was nothing "light" about this unit. Light was a common description of Spec Ops oriented groups within the Army during this time period. It mainly consisted of soldiers with special forces backgrounds from various systems within the Republic. There were no restrictions to what equipment or vehicles soldiers used in the line of duty. The main goal was to get the job done. High Command gave their orders and advice on how to best proceed based on intel, beyond that they did not seem to care which tools were applied. Heavy weaponry, tanks and bombers among other vehicles/ships were used, but the primary focus was on Infantry combat, be it head-on combat, infiltration, guerilla, sabo or rescue missions. Nihlas were among the rookies, placed in the 22nd to observe and learn from the more veteran troops in the division. He was treated like a brother and son by the rest of the troops, and he felt like he belonged right from the start. He came from an 'Army family'. His father for example was a higher ranking officer, although now retired, he had earned a good reputation for himself as both a good leader and fighter. His occupation clearly affected how he found it best to raise his three children. Strict. Nihlas was the oldest of the bunch. Nihlas' brother and sister had also gone through basic military training, and they too knew how to fight and think like soldiers. However, they chose other paths in their lives than the one leading to a life of serving the Republic military. During a rescue mission to save a downed Republic scout transport on Csilla, a planet in the unknown regions not too far from the Farlax Sector - Nihlas experienced his worst nightmare. A scenario that would change him for the rest of his life. It was only his fifth 'real' mission with squads consisting of men from the 22nd. The rescue mission was lead by Mur Weraij, Captain Weraij. A war hero, soon-to-be retired from operational duty, about a year away that day. --- It was standard procedure to land a few clicks away from the target location. They had a beacon indicating the whereabouts of the crashed transport, a fairly large-class scout with troop-transporting qualities. '' They spotted a crashed ship in the horizon, smoke becoming apparent in the icy ever-rainy-like atmosphere of the planet. The surface was hard and wet. Captain Weraij was on point. Private Nihlas was almost at the back of the column. As they came closer, the Captain ordered a perimeter formed around the downed ship. There were no pilots nor scouts to be seen near the damaged vessel exterior. Nihlas, the Captain and two other men entered the transport through a hole in the side. To their big surprise, they found a pile of bodies in Republic trooper armor stacked up in the middle of the ruined interior of the ship. What a bloody mess. Clearly not as a result of the crash itself. Weraij ran back outside and alerted the rest of the men, who knew what do to do. They began digging in. Weraij contacted the High Command through his personal holo-comm. The weather had changed for the worse, and they could not risk tracking back to their own transport with a possible threat lurking in the misty surroudings. They bunkered up around and within the wreakage area, hoping for an opening in weather conditions. ''During the night, it started. They heard growling in the midst of darkness. Howling like wolves, like bears or .. Like.. Nexu. "Nexu!" The Eastern sentry yelled. "Incoming Nexu from the East!" '' Red strips of quick and sometimes frantic blaster fire teared through the air, reflecting soft light in the mist as they flew towards their targets. The Nexu, a four-legged beastiality with huge claws and teeth. There were many of them. They had counted a pack of 20 or more just within the first few moments of the struggle. They just kept on coming. Nihlas had taken up a position next to his Captain, firing everything he got using his standard issue blaster carbine weapon. Even with no confirmed targets the men fired at will, and soon just at the shadows of nothingness. --- Suddenly it went all quiet. The men had stopped firing, the monsters had stopped their growling and threatening screams. The soldiers looked at one another. Nihlas took the opportunity to go back into the ships main hold to gather what blaster cells and medical equipment he could carry. He suddenly noticed a weird organic-looking rock under the stacked pile of troopers at the center of the ship. It had a yellowish glow to it, with a tint of bright red at the center. He dropped the supplies, and pushed away the bodies that were half-covering the rock. He assumed it was a rock, but it was certainly like no other rock he had seen before. He called his Captain and pointed at the rock. "That is no ordinary rock, private.", Weraij said in a composed manner. "That is a Nexu Nightmare gland. It communicates to the Nexu using a special secration, causing nearby Nexu to become aggressive while drawing towards this location. It brings forth a survival instinct. Imagine if you knew a threat was coming to kill your family and you must defend them at all costs. That's the emotion and aggressiveness triggered through that gland. We have got to remove it, or it will surely lead to our end." The fighting had picked up again, and the Nexu seemed to have even more numbers and appeared to be even more determined to reach the gland, the supposed threat wasn't the troopers surrounding the ship, but the gland within the ship. This was a very nasty situation to be in. Clearly, this was a setup. The men had counted a few men missing from the interior, which could indicate that those were the ones responsible for killing the scouts and placing the rare gland there to haunt any rescuing parties. ''The 22nd couldn't hold the Nexu back, and on more than few occations direct melee combat was engaged. '' Fighting Nexu using fists, short-swords or on most occation bashing with rifles was not proving effective. These were aggressive creatures, fired up, as if by a drug. The 22nd was taking casualties now. Once the guard on one side had let some animals through, it affected the rest of the perimeter. "Captain! We can't hold this for much longer!" a trooper screamed at the officer. Back-up had already been requested by the now dead Ratursa. The eta was unknown. Nihlas ran over to help a trooper, firing a deadly burst at the throat region of a Nexu. He then had to throw himself away from another lunging at him. He got back up on his knees and threw his short-sword at it - seing it pierce into the skull of the now apparent elder Nexu. "Captain!" Nihlas couldn't see the commanding officer anywhere. He threw a grenade at the area infront of the defense perimeter, and continued to check the interior of the ship. He got through the hole and saw an injured Weraij, sitting on the floor looking down while holding his arm or what was left of it. "Captain!" "Are you badly injured, Captain?!" Nihlas yelled. "One of those retched creatures ate a big chunk of my trigger arm, Kain. This wasn't the way I pictured my miliary life to end, as fodder for these victims of instinct, these animals. The worst part of it is that we're in this mess because someone decided to turn against the Republic, the symbol of peace and system in this Galaxy." -blaster fire, soldiers yelling and monsters growling was heard outside the ship-. "Sir. Nihlas said. You've got to get out of here. Here." Nihlas picked up the gland, which was cube-shaped, heavy as a bar of gold. Put it quickly in a backpack and handed it to the Captain on the floor. The Captain looked up at the backpack and said, "I would rather die than leave you all here." "I know that, sir." Nihlas responded. "This is urgent Sir, we can't hold this position for more than a few minutes more, they are too many. You need to take the gland away from this position, the gland has turned this ship into a huge and aggressive Nexu deodorant-magnet. At the moment, this ship is going to attract them way more than the gland." "You're right, Nihlas. I will go to Extration point Charlie, West of here." ''"Roge-o, Captain. We will be able to provide cover for you to reach beyond the large rocks to the west, but from there on you'll be on your own. I will inform the rest of the men at the best of my ability, sir. Good luck sir." '' The soldiers nodded to each other in agreement. The Captain strapped the backpack on and ran outside with a blaster in his left hand. He yelled "You are the very symbol of hope, the illustration of brotherhood! For the Republic!" He fired his blaster multiple times, killing two Nexu, and disappeared into the fog to the west of the perimeter defense. --- The Captain ran as fast as his veteran legs carried him. He dumped the gland in a dense swamp-like area not too far away from the crash site but it should be sufficient to draw the swarm of incoming Nexu away from the zone of battle. Safely at Extraction point Charlie, he holo-commed his position to the incoming rescue transport - as well as informing them of the situation going on at the downed scout transport. --- The rescue transport had no way of providing support fire in the heavy ice fog around the scout site. They had no choice but to land and secure point Charlie. The Captains injuries were attended to by two field medics, and the rest of the squads rushed to the still-going beacon indicating the location of the crash site. The rescue party engaged the remaining four or five Nexu, tearing the wild animals down before they could bite or claw at them. The rescuers too smelled the oddness of the gland. They shouted the code-word for friendly, awaiting a response from someone, but nobody answered. They were rushing around the perimeter checking dead bodies - there were shards of ice, blood, weapons and even limbs scattered within the near vincinity of the ship. Inside the ship they saw the stacked bodies, but nobody was alive in there at all. "H... he.. here!" A weak voice cried at the far end of the West perimeter. Two soldiers were trapped beneath a relatively huge dead elder Nexu, apparently very badly injured. It took four rescuing troops to push it off them, and apparently some of its claws were stuck in the leg of one of the pinned soldiers, Garosh, causing him to express a horrible yell of pain. It is said to have been heard by the Medics at point Charlie that night. --- ''Through the reconstruction of the rescue mission, the reports from Garosh and the Captain revealed the many heroics performed by a mentioned Private Nihlas Kain. The troops of the 22nd gave Nihlas the nickname 'Nexus'. In the fight against waves of Nexu, he had been the one stepping up to take charge when the injured and resigned Weraij could not. He was the center, the main force of inspiration to not give up. There were only three survivors that night. A mission of rescue, became a mission of survival. --- Closer to our present time, the Senate were in the process of creating three new special army detachments - to counter the unpredictability of the Empire with a few tastes of their own medicine, guerilla or what else it took to show them that the Republic had the means of thinking new. One of these detachments were ultimately called Paragon, and the one picked to lead it was the son of the highly decorated officer Kain. Private Nihlas Kain. Nihlas was overwhelmed, being promoted from his rank as private with the 22nd to leading a free-roaming detachment was a great honor. With that came great responsibility. His personality was scarred after the events of the past. Many men he called his friends and brothers died in horrible ways right before his eyes that night. It was terrible to relive, and even harder to picture the faces of the families of those who died when they learned the sad truth. There were rumours of internal struggle within the Republic. Not everything was what it seemed to be. The struggle on Csilla proved that. Hidden agendas. Traitors to the cause. He had to be mindful when selecting his members for Paragon. To question authority wasn't at all the the way he had been raised, but he knew that there could be bad elements high up, perhaps even in the Senate at this point. It was imperative to make sure that the brotherhood of the fighting personnel was apparent to all members, it would have to be proven in combat and through time. The Paragon was to remain true to the cause. Anyone not up to the standard will be dismissed respectively. "There are dangerous times ahead of us, we must be strong, and remain a beacon of hope. The hope of a peaceful Galaxy for which we will forever strive to achieve, if not for ourselves, then for our children." Nihlas looked out of the window, in the hospital still, seing the stars above, and prayed to never experience an equivalent of the night on Csilla. He has a part to play in the future to come. The end. Category:Characters